new signings?

[hasman82]

according to sky sports news, we have signed a keeper (max johnson) and an israeli striker (gil blumstein)

any ideas???

[hasman82]

according to sky sports news, we have signed a keeper (max johnson) and an israeli striker (gil blumstein)

any ideas???

seems blumstein was on trial at gers last summer and banged in a few while there, former villarreal youth player also...

[Ivy League]

according to sky sports news, we have signed a keeper (max johnson) and an israeli striker (gil blumstein)

any ideas???

The goalkeeper bit is true according to the lads website http://www.maxjohnson.net/

The Israeli striker was at trial at Rangers a year or 2 ago and according to web reports made a good impression

[davieB]

http://www.maxjohnson.net/

Seems he has his own site, impressive!! And it says he's signed for us.

[Ivy League]

Max signs for Inverness Caledonian Thistle

Max has signed a one year profesional contract for Scotish Premier League side Inverness Caledonian Thistle, following three happy years in the Newcastle United Academy. Max is excited and looking forward to this SPL season.

[Yngwie]

He'll be delighted to be moving to one of the few places that can match Newcastle's night life.

[Ivy League]

Why does our own "official" website have no info??

[Libero]

just found this snippet taken off a BBC forum from July last year;

Just had a quick look on the Rangers site and they were talking about this young Israeli lad called Gil Blumstein who is on trail. Scored a hat trick last night and apparently scored a cracking free kick against Blackburn reserves last week.

Wonder if he will be offered a contract? look as if we could have diamond in the rough!

[Yngwie]

Looking purely at Blumstein's career history, he was perhaps a very highly rated teenager who then failed to progress.

Wiki cliki

Needs a career relaunch, time for the ICT magic to rub off on him.

[Yngwie]

seems blumstein was on trial at gers last summer

Indeed. But didn't get signed, therefore he can't be as good as Bajram Fetai......

[Libero]

Looking purely at Blumstein's career history, he was perhaps a very highly rated teenager who then failed to progress.

Wiki cliki

Needs a career relaunch, time for the ICT magic to rub off on him.

sounds pretty much like it Yngwie, just read this:

Six years ago, an 11-year-old Israeli midfielder by the name of Gil Blumstein held trials with the English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur. After three days, he was called to the offices of the club's technical director, David Pleat, who informed him that he did not show what was expected of him, and would not be joining the team. "I'll be back and play in Europe even it isn't for you," Blumstein shot back.

Yesterday he made good on his word when the 17-year-old signed for Gent of Belgium where he will join Gili Vermout who recently joined the team from Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Blumstein began his career with Beitar Ness Tubruk, Israel's leading soccer academy, where he was spotted by former Israel coach Shlomo Scharf.

"You have to get this kid to Europe before they ruin him here," Scharf told Blumstein's father. Since then, father and son have made it their goal for Gil to play in Europe.

"I remember when I played for Tubruk all the kids dreamed of playing for Maccabi Netanya," Blumstein recalls. "I was already dreaming of playing for Barcelona and Liverpool."

When Blumstein tried out for Tottenham, he was joined by Shai Birok and Shlomi Arbeitman. When the latter two realized they did not figure in the London club's plans, they gave up and returned to Israel. But Blumstein kept trying.

"My father got in touch with Ronen Katsav and told him I wanted to take another shot at Europe," Blumstein says. "We knew that to succeed we needed to work with a top agent and at the time, Katsav dealt with Yossi Benayoun and Dudu Awat in Spain."

Katsav arranged trials for the young talent with Spanish First Division teams Racing Santander and Espanyol. Both sides liked what they saw, but eventually visa problems prevented a deal.

At the age of 14, Blumstein finally realized his dream when he signed for another Spanish side, Villareal, where he played for the youth team alongside players two years older than him. But then an injury threatened to cut his career short.

"I tore my cruciate ligament and the doctors said my soccer playing days were over, but I didn't want to believe them," Blumstein says of the injury he suffered while training with Israel's under-16s.

Blumstein decided to return to Israel for rehabilitation, and after three months of intense treatments he was back on his feet and playing for Ironi Rishon Letzion's youth team.

Ziv Peleg, Rishon's youth coach at the time, recalls a tenacious youngster. "I saw straight away that Gil was a player who was a cut above the rest. In 12 games he scored 9 goals. He looks for goals all the time, and that isn't something obvious in a youth-team midfielder ."

Within a short time, Blumstein was recalled to Israel's youth team.

"The kid proved to everyone that he was back," Israel youth coach Ze'ev Zeltzer says. "He's a player with enormous talent, and that kind of technique you don't see every day."

At the end of the season, Villareal was on the phone asking Blumstein to return. "I also had offers from Real Betis and Sevilla, but that was to play for their reserve teams. Watford also made an offer, but I wasn't interested because I didn't think I had much of a chance of playing there."

Meanwhile, Blumstein has opted to join Vermout at Gent, but the 17-year-old believes the Belgian club is just a stepping stone on the way to bigger things. "Within a year or two I will be playing in England or Spain," he says.

Blumstein joins Vermout, Salim Tuame and Elyaniv Barda in the Belgian league, but his move is more reminiscent of Ben Sahar's switch to Chelsea last year.

Blumstein says more Israeli players should make the move to Europe at a young age.

"I see what goes on in Europe, and I think that Israel has a lot of talent to offer in the 15-16 age group. But then the army comes along, and together with that, there is a lack of sporting culture here, which finishes players off. I think that if more young players were to make the decision like me and Ben Sahar to move abroad at a young age, Israel would have much bigger representation on European teams than it does today.

[Renegade]

Well that's him. ICT seem to have a history of taking players who maybe didn't fulfil their whole potential and help them turn out good. Hopefully this is another one of those.

[Hearach]

both signings sound promising

[Libero]

It seems Blumstein played two games for rangers when on trial and scored four from midfield. sounds like he could be a real find

ISRAELI trialist Gil Blumenshtein enhanced his chances of winning a deal with Rangers when he smashed a hat-trick as the Reserves won 6-1 in Portadown last night.

Blumstein, who had previously been with Villarreal and Gent, looked the part as a young Rangers side won comfortably with John Fleck pulling the strings.

Teenager Fleck has been left out of the Emirates Cup squad to get more match practice with the Reserves, who also play on Sunday against Glentoran, and he dominated proceedings from midfield and scored two goals, one of which was a terrific strike.

Peripheral attacker Alan Gow was also in the side and he scored the other goal for Rangers but the night belonged to Blumenshtein who also scored a terrific free kick in last week's closed door Murray Park game with Blackburn Rovers

[Libero]

confirmed here

TERRY SIGNS TWO

Caley Thistle manager Terry Butcher has swooped to sign a striker and a goalkeeper after both impressed in trials with the club.

Gil Blumanshtein, a 20 year old Israeli, is a pacy raider who can play across the front line. A former Rangers trialist, he played last season with Hapoel Bersheba. Gil has signed a one-year contract with Caley Jags and as he also holds a Polish passport, no work permit is necessary.

Goalkeeper Max Johnson is 19 and has spent three years with Newcastle United, being at their Youth Academy and playing for the youth side then the reserve team. Before that he had spells as an age group player at Bury and Burnley. Born in Norwich, he went to school in Blackburn. He has also penned a one year deal.

Manager Terry Butcher said:"I received good recommendations on both lads and they have shown up well in practice matches and earned themselves offers. Gil has good speed and is a versatile attacker and adds to our forward resources. We've been looking for goalkeeping backup for Ryan Esson, and Max has good experience from Newcastle and will challenge for the jersey.

"It's pleasing to get these deals done and dusted early. But we're not finished our recruitment yet and we have several other trialists continuing to train with us and we'll see if there are developments there."

glad to get the ball rolling

ive seen four different spellings of the israeli lads name now, wonder which one is right!

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

According to Wikipedia Blumstein has only played 10 senior games and is yet to get on the scoresheet !

[Yngwie]

ive seen four different spellings of the israeli lads name now, wonder which one is right!

Probably depends which of his passports you are looking at - come to think of it, Israel has a track record when it comes to faking EU passports!

[Libero]

How old is max johnson?

he looks well young!

19

[MissICT]

Two signings already

however I thought Butcher wanted an experienced goalkeeper as competition for Esson.

[DALNEIGHCALEY]

I agree , experience is what we should be looking for .

[kencar]

It says they both impressed in trials with the club and in practice matches. Were these at the end of last season?

[caley100]

ive seen four different spellings of the israeli lads name now, wonder which one is right!

Probably depends which of his passports you are looking at - come to think of it, Israel has a track record when it comes to faking EU passports!

Feckin way Yngwie... you stir baby!

[ictchris]

Peripheral attacker Alan Gow

:P

[Renegade]

Does anyone else recollect Butcher saying that there was a chance that two keepers may be brought in during the pre-season? It's also interesting to note that Butcher has also said that he wants some experienced competition for Esson, something that this newly signed keeper does not have much of (yet), bar some reserve games at Newcastle. Perhaps the case is (also bearing in mind about Butcher's bids for Tuffey), that Max Johnson may be third choice keeper next season with someone else being brought in to fight for the number 1 spot with Esson.

[Libero]

Does anyone else recollect Butcher saying that there was a chance that two keepers may be brought in during the pre-season? It's also interesting to note that Butcher has also said that he wants some experienced competition for Esson, something that this newly signed keeper does not have much of (yet), bar some reserve games at Newcastle. Perhaps the case is (also bearing in mind about Butcher's bids for Tuffey), that Max Johnson may be third choice keeper next season with someone else being brought in to fight for the number 1 spot with Esson.

I originally thought about that as well, not sure if Johnson would be eligible for the U19s. I know some of the bigger SPL clubs have three first team keepers, maybe Butcher is thinking the same thing